


The Six Stages of Cooking Rice

by lelevex



Series: Hit the ground runnin’ [2]
Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Ash is whipped for Eiji, Cooking rice, Domesticity, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon Fix-It, Rice is the best matchmaker tbh, they’re cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:46:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23971042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lelevex/pseuds/lelevex
Summary: In which Eiji teaches Ash the wonders of the kitchen.
Relationships: Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji
Series: Hit the ground runnin’ [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1699906
Comments: 7
Kudos: 114





	The Six Stages of Cooking Rice

**stage one : measure the rice**

"Eiji, why do we have a tub full of rice at the bottom of the cupboard?"

Ash was crouching down in front of the cupboard they stored cereal in, having just pulled out a new box to open and in turn discovering the plastic tub of rice hidden behind them. He heard Eiji's footsteps softly pad into the kitchen and assumed that he was wearing a pair of fuzzy grey socks that went with his comfortable attire.

"I didn't think you'd find it," Eiji said, crouching down next to Ash and Ash stole a quick glance down at Eiji's feet to see that his suspicions were correct. He smiled as the rest of Eiji was adorned with an aura of softness, from his grey sweatpants and cream coloured sweater to his fluffy hair and fuzzy socks. He basically screamed 'cuddle me'.

Eiji didn't seem to notice Ash's blatant staring and instead pulled the drawer out, popping the lid off the top of the box in the process. He stood up then with Ash following suit and the flicker of determination in his eyes scared Ash as the older boy rummaged through their fridge.

"What are you doing? Since when have we had rice?" Ash asked, questions tumbling out of his mouth like clothes in a dryer. Fitting, he thought. And then the realisation that Eiji had managed to hide a big plastic tub full of rice from him hit him a little slower than it really should have (and Ash blames Eiji's bedhead for that) "did you hide this from me?"

Eiji laughed, "okay one, I'm cooking rice because I'm hungry and there's no more left in the fridge. Two, since I came back from Japan. And three, yes that's why we always have a bunch of cereal."

"But it's just rice? You don't have to hide it from me," Ash said, leaning against the counter as Eiji shut the fridge door. 

"There wasn't a way to bring it up? It was kinda an impulse thing," Eiji said, sheepishly looking away from Ash. "I accidentally bought a big packet instead of the small one person ones when I was down at the Asian Supermarket by habit and only realised when I got home."

Ash laughed. Impulse Eiji never really thought thing through. "And where was I for all of this?"

"I think you were in a meeting with someone," Eiji thought for a while, playing with the sleeves of his sweater as he struggled to remember, "a couple days after I got back?"

And the sight was adorable. Really adorable, and so Ash just mused a quiet "okay," as he took in the image of Eiji being Eiji.

"Can you bring me the rice pot? Just take it out of the rice cooker in the corner," Eiji vaguely gestured towards the corner of the kitchen, where the toaster and microwave were tucked away next to the outlet. “I think it’s time to cook some more,”

"We have a rice cooker?" Ash asked as he walked into the corner. "Since when?"

Eiji laughed, "since ages ago, before I even left for Japan."

Ash really needed to go into the kitchen more. Maybe he could learn to finally cook. After all, Shorter's lessons were less educational and his food was shit half the time so it was no wonder that Ash had never learned how to do anything in the kitchen.

"Do I just- lift the bowl thingy out of the other thing?" Ash asked, unsure and uncertain about the appliance before him. He swore that there must have been a rice cooker at Chang Dai but he couldn't remember seeing one anytime he went there. 

"Yeah, have you never cooked rice before?" Eiji asked.

"No?" Ash said, handing over the bowl thingy to Eiji. 

"I'll teach you then," Eiji crouched down next to the tub of rice, an empty plastic cup was buried halfway beneath the grains.

"Huh?"

"And we can start with this," Eiji said, "this (he tapped the side of the bowl thingy, holding it up for Ash to see) is called a rice pot. Not a bowl thingy,"

"Should I take notes?" Ash asked.

"Do you want to?" Eiji teased, "if you screw up rice then you will never be able to cook,"

Eiji crouched down next to the tub of rice and gestured for Ash to crouch next to him. He'd placed the rice pot so it was resting on his legs and all Ash could think about was soft. Soft soft soft soft soft. So much so that he didn't even realise that Eiji was speaking again.

"Ash? Ash?" Eiji asked, bringing Ash back to the reality of cooking rice with wide eyes and a voice ridden with concern.

"Maybe I really should take notes," Ash mused and Eiji's eyes relaxed, voice calmer than before.

"Definitely," Eiji chuckled, "so listen up and take notes in your brain (he poked Ash's forehead at that, though leaning to reach Ash whilst crouching almost caused him to fall over). Now, there are six stages to cooking rice. Number one is measuring out the rice. Since there's two of us, we need three cups of rice," Eiji took the cup and measured out three cups of rice, "most of the time it's the same number of cups to people, but I tend to put one more,"

Ash nodded and followed Eiji when he stood up to head to the sink. He returned to put the lid back on and push the drawer back into the cupboard a few seconds later when he saw the question poised and ready on Eiji's lips. He really needed to pay less attention to them but just like the rest of his outfit they looked soft and Ash knew he was gone. So he trailed after Eiji and clung onto his every word as if making rice was his lifeline.

"Now that stage one is complete," Eiji started, clapping his hands on the rim of the rice pot, "we can start stage two: the first rinse."

**stage two : the first rinse**

"The _first_ rinse?" Ash asked. 

"Yep, first of three since we have to make sure the rice is clean before we cook it." Eiji said. He rolled up his sleeves and turned on the tap, filling up the rice pot with water until the rice was submerged in water. Swirling his hand through the rice until the water turned cloudy, he could feel Ash's eyes watching him closely as he worked. He poured the water out shortly after - making sure that as little rice as possible escaped from the pot.

"Your hands are slightly red," Ash commented.

Eiji looked down at his hands, droplets of water dripping onto the counter. His sleeves had rolled down at this point, and the ends were slightly soaked with water. Curse big sweaters. Curse Ash's sweaters. 

"Ah, I usually use cold water to rinse the rice and then slightly warmer water to cook it in." Eiji said, drying his hands on a tea towel. The sleeves of his sweater getting in the way as he did so, and he pouted as he pushed the sleeves back up with dry hands. Eiji heard Ash laugh and slide the rice pot across the counter towards him.

"So what should I do?" Ash asked, staring at the pot in front of him.

"Time for stage three! The second rinse," Eiji smiled. 

**stage three : the second rinse**

"So water until it's submerged, swirl my hand around until it's cloudy, and pour?" Ash asked, looking at Eiji with uncertain eyes. 

"Yeah, try and make sure as little rice as possible falls down the drain," Eiji said.

Ash finished filling the pot up with water, moving it from under the tap and onto the counter before dipping his hand to start washing the rice. 

"Fuck that's cold!" he exclaimed, recoiling his hand as soon as it touched the water. He started drying off his hand and glaring at Eiji (who was struggling to talk in bouts of laughter) as he did so.

"I told you," Eiji laughed, and Ash noticed that his sleeves were rolling down again.

"I didn't expect it to be that cold though, Jesus I almost dropped the pot," Ash said, shaking remnants of water from his hands before trying again.

"It's just cold water," Eiji said, "you've gone through worse,"

And Ash grumbled slightly because Eiji was right but not in the way he thought he was. Cold water was easier to deal with than Eiji clad in soft pyjamas.

**stage four : third rinse**

"Why do we have to rinse it a third time?" Ash asked, handing Eiji the rice pot.

"Because it just feels right," Eiji shrugged, "you don't just do things twice, you do them three times,"

"Unless you're paranoid," Ash added, "then you'd check more times than you can count,"

Eiji rolled his eyes. "Charming, but definitely not the sentiment I was going for,"

"I guessed," Ash smiled.

**stage five : fill the rice pot with water**

"So how much do I fill this?" Ash asked.

"You know the lines of your finger?," Eiji held up his index finger to show Ash, "the rice has to reach the first line from the top and the water has to at least reach the second line,"

"Oh okay," Ash said. He filled up the post with slightly less water than he thought he needed. Levelling the rice before he measured out the water carefully, adding in more water until bingo, right at the line. "Good?"

"Perfect," Eiji smiled. "Bring it over to the rice cooker and just place the pot back inside."

"It's heavier than I expected," Ash said, placing the pot carefully in the rice cooker.

"I thought so," Eiji said, "and that's stage five done!"

Ash looked at him quizzically, "what's stage six?"

"Cook the rice of course,"

**stage six : cook the rice**

Eiji flipped the switch on the rice cooker, watching as the orange light flickered over to 'Cook', and left the rice to be.

"That's it?" Ash asked.

"Yeah, it's not that hard," Eiji said as the two retired from their kitchen exploits and onto the comfort of their couch.

"I guess" Ash mumbled, falling against Eiji.

"Hey," Eiji pushed him away gently but Ash retaliated with a quiet (and muffled) "shush I cooked today," that persuaded Eiji to let him rest.

"Y'know, my sister screwed up rice when she made it the first time," Eiji said, playing with the frayed ends of his sweater.

"Really? How?" Ash adjusted his position so that he was still leaning on Eiji, but it was more comfortable looking up at him.

"We were cooking rice together, and we put the water in and waited. But when it was cooking it started to smell like plastic burning? Which was not good and when it was done half of the water hadn't evaporated and was still there," Eiji chuckled, "so we threw it out and tried again and we thought we got it right on the third try so she went to go have dinner and the parts of the rice were hard and crunchy? (and at this point Eiji started laughing so much that Ash had to remove himself from the boys shoulder, but it was alright because Eiji smiling rivalled the sun) It turned out that part of the rice was uncooked and our mom was so angry that we'd thrown out three lots of rice and ended up breaking the rice cooker."

"Sounds like a mess," Ash said, returning to his place on Eiji's shoulder once he had calmed down. The jostling about that Eiji did had made his prior space uncomfortable.

"It was," Eiji smiled, and once again his smile rivalled the brightness of the sun. "She never cooked anything again she was that embarrassed,"

"Can I cook again?" Ash asked and he found his fingers playing with the fabric of Eiji's pyjama pants. 

"No ones stopping you," Eiji said, voice as soft as his clothes.

"Okay," Ash muttered, "I'll try cooking for you."

Ash felt Eiji's head rest against his, and the curve of his cheeks tipped upwards in a smile. Hands found themselves intertwined between them.

"I'll look forward to it," Eiji whispered, and Ash was determined to make the best fucking meal for him.

**Author's Note:**

> The story Eiji tells is a true story about me and my brother, just replace Eiji’s sister with my brother and the failed rice was a joint effort from both of us lmao
> 
> The drawer mentioned earlier is based off the one in my kitchen - I don’t know how (or if) I can insert images in notes but I’ll add it in the next chapter regardless


End file.
